Pubdate: Fri, 30 Jun 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
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Author: Eric Pianin, Washington Post Staff Writer

SPENDING BILL CLEARED MINUS CUBA PROVISION

The House gave final approval last night to an $11.2 billion emergency 
spending package after Democratic senators forced GOP leaders to abandon 
plans to include compromise language easing economic sanctions against Cuba.

Congress has spent the better part of four months dickering over funds 
requested by the White House for troops in Kosovo, anti-drug efforts in 
Colombia and disaster relief. The House adopted the package, 306 to 110, 
and the Senate was expected to approve it today.

The final package includes $1.3 billion earmarked for Colombia and other 
Andean countries for their war on drugs and $6.4 billion for the military, 
including $2 billion to replenish operating funds used for Kosovo. There is 
also $361 million for relief from Hurricane Floyd and other disasters, $661 
million for the damage a New Mexico forest fire caused to homes and the 
national laboratory at Los Alamos, $600 million for low-income heating 
assistance and $700 million for the Coast Guard.

While approval of the emergency funding was assured late yesterday 
afternoon, after final talks between House and Senate leaders, Republicans 
will have to find another legislative vehicle for the Cuban sanctions 
agreement after they return from the Fourth of July recess.

The compromise plan for easing economic sanctions against Cuba that House 
Republicans worked out earlier this week was dropped from the package after 
Senate Democrats critical of the plan threatened a filibuster.

The dispute pitted Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Byron L. Dorgan 
(D-N.D.) against House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), who helped 
negotiate the compromise for allowing the sale of food and medicine to Cuba 
for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Dodd and Dorgan contend the terms of the agreement are too restrictive 
– denying Cuba access to U.S. credit or private loans – and would 
do little to open Cuba to U.S. grain sales. Dodd also strongly objects to a 
provision that turns current restrictions on travel to Cuba into law.

"The agreement is a political fig leaf that's not going to result in our 
ability to sell food to Cuba," Dorgan said. "And it's a step backwards in 
terms of travel."

Hastert vowed to retain the Cuba language but backed off after Senate 
Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) advised him there was no way they 
could get around the filibuster until after the recess.

Dodd's state has an economic stake in the bill's passage because the 
measure would provide $234 million to purchase 18 Blackhawk helicopters to 
be used by Colombia's army and national police in their drug interdiction 
campaign. The Blackhawks are manufactured by United Technologies Corp. of 
Hartford, Conn.

Meanwhile, environmentalists and Clinton officials complained about the 
Republicans' decision to insert language at the last minute to block the 
Environmental Protection Agency from implementing rules aimed at cleaning 
up the nation's waterways.
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